User blog:Tsurime/Tsurime's guide on creating characters~
hOI and welcome to Porcy's guide on creating original characters! Although the Character Creation Guidelines can be helpful, they don't really give you an exact, step-by-step guide. So, I'm here to provide one for you! Most OCs on the wiki are female, so I'll be using "her" pronouns. This guide will be split up into sections for your convenience, and "original characters" will sometimes be abbriveated for my convenience. Moving on... Basic Info Name The name is one of the most important parts of an OC. Changing a characters name is a troublesome and difficult process, especially when you're already RPing with them, so choose wisely. Some people say to focus on the meaning of a name when naming your character. Don't! As long as the name sounds nice, it should be fine. For Japanese characters, a kanji is neccesary. There's a good site for kanji that will let you type in a syllable and find lots of different symbols for it. Just find the syllables and put them together in order, and there you go! If you don't get it, I could help you find a kanji for your character's name. Remember that when your character's family has a kanji, all the family members should have the same kanji for their family name. Japanese characters do not have middle names! Don't name your character something that doesn't math their ethnicity. If she's German she should not be named Sayaka, if she's Japanese she should not be named Sarah. Do not name your character after an English word. A word from another language should be fine, but real names are better still. Nicknames If your character has a long name, nicknames are essential. Also, in Japanese culture it is considered extremely rude to not use honorifics , so make sure not to make that mistake. Gender Female, male, agender, bigender, transgender, demigender, the list goes on and on. You could also make your character a trap, although traps are getting overused on the wikia at this point. Age The age range in Hatsuharu Academy is 12-18, so keep your OCs in that age range if they are students! If they're faculty, then it's recommended to have an age between 30 and 80, because there's no way they could become a teacher by 20 and they would probably retire by 80 anyway. Make sure to have your characters eventually age, they can't be 16 forever! Species Before making an OC non-human, keep in mind that only 1/4 of your characters can be non-human (unless you have less than 4). Making a non-humanoid character or a divine character (angels, gods, etc.) is also against the rules. Keep powers reasonable! If she's part neko, it's reasonable for her to have enhanced speed and be stealthy, but not reasonable to have her control fire or something like that. If you want to be able to control fire, a kitsune would be more reasonable. Ethnicity This is one of the most important parts of a character. Even in the crazy world of anime, a Japanese girl probably won't have dark skin, and an African American probably won't be pale. Many people despise seeing OCs whose name and appearance doesn't match their ethnicity, so make sure you get that right! Occupation Self-explanatory. Personality Before designing your character, a personality is mandatory. This is the most important part, and if I find an OC without a personality I will rip their throat out. Before we actually decide on the personality, will the character be evil? Good? Or selfish? I advise against making a "neutral" character, because pretty much everybody's going to lean toward good, evil, or selfishness. Unless your character is confused and overwhelmed, in which case that would make sense for them not to pick sides. Personalities are not simple enough to be described in one word. What I normally do is take at least three different noncontradictory traits and make a paragraph for each one, describing it and how it applies to your character. The more the better. For example: "intelligent, soft-spoken, shy, kind, clumsy, helpful" are noncontradictory, but "sweet, tsundere, yangire, murderous, kind" are contradictory. A contradictory personality will instantly make your character a Mary Sue, or at least an underdeveloped character. More on that later. Likes, Dislikes, Hobbies and All That Jazz What are their beliefs? What do they like, What do they dislike? Fear? These aren't mandatory, but can help to spice up a character. Appearance Ah, the appearance! The most fun part of creating a character. Hatsuharu Academy is set in an anime-ish universe, so this is pretty wide for the most part. But there are some limits. Before you continue, I just need to cover one tiny little thing. Or, rather, two things. BOOBS. I'm sorry, but don't give your character huge boobs! A teenager does not have those. If your character is around 12, they don't have boobs. Period. If they're around 15, they would have small boobs. If they are around 18, okay, boobs are acceptable, but please, no larger than a D-cup! A good idea is to base the whole design off one or two colors. That's a good way to make it look neat and all match. Make sure to give them one distinguishing trait, be it their hair, hat, or a clothing item. Next up, the physique. Making a fat character would be really unique, and I've only ever seen one fat OC, and slim characters are very common. Also, make their height and weight normal. 45 kg is about normal for an anime girl, but 30 kg is way too skinny. 150 cm is okay, but 100 is not. Like I said, make sure their skin matches their ethnicity. Hair and eyes, now. Anime hair has many possibilities, so go crazy, but try not to make it a super bright or neon color. For students, modifying the uniform is optional but a good idea. Read School Uniform for more information. Stockings! Stockings can be a big part of character design. The length is usually between knee-length to thigh-high, although pantyhose and socks are an option too. Baggy legwarmers are trending, and can be a very cute look, especially when paired with stockings. Abilities If they're a human, they have no powers. Powers depend largely on species, which can be found near the top. Skills are self-explanatory. Make sure not to make them overpowered. Backstory Try not to give them a super tragic past. Avoid being an orphan, sexual abuse, physical abuse, severe emotional abuse, rape, serious injuries, terminal illnesses, and kidnapping. Also, put trigger warnings if neccesary. Also, don't make it super boring. There's gotta be some conflict in their life. Please no chosen one, magical prophecy nonsense, that's extremely Sueish. Harry Potter is a prime example. He has dead parents, a magical prohecy, a chosen one thing, and other stuff he constantly angsts about. That's not a good thing, so don't make the same happen to your character. Mary Sues I made a whole new page about this, including a test, clicky. Conslusion Hope this helps you make your characters! I'll probably update it later, but for now, this is it. Category:Blog posts